The Sopranos

Ugh, I couldn't stand her voice and speech pattern.

You will either love her or hate her on the show. I like Lorraine so I didn't mind but the role itself is a bit "obvious" for the show.

She did sound kind of thick-lipped. She wasn’t believable as a doctor. It was an obvious expository device for Tony to state the inner workings of his mind.

I love her in Goodfellas, not so much in the role of doctor. The whole thing is just not feasible. I read that she was originally offered the role of Carmella.

Melfi was fine the first few seasons, but she was clearly phoning it in during the later seasons. I heard her drinking got really bad during that time, and that's one reason Chase scaled the character back to the point that Melfi wasn't much more than a plot device by the end.

Love Dr. Melfi!!! I'm doing Season 6 right now. I've been binging too. Haven't seen this is years and I'm seeing things from a whole different perspective. The acting and the writing is superb.

I’m going to watch this one of these days. I tried watching it about 15 yrs ago but couldn’t get into it at all, same with Breaking Bad. I watched the latter about 6 months back & LOvED it & am sure the same thing will happen with Sopranos.

James Gandolfini is a genius.

I'm also noticing, this time around, the comedy of it. Times when I laugh in horror, it is definitely satirical, black comedy, but there are elements of it for sure especially in the last two seasons. There's an insanity to it. It's like, we see this family, Mom, Dad, two kids, extended family: sister, mothers in law, father- in- law, cousins.... and the main characters live in this gorgeous house with a pool, and then it all unravels from there. Very subversive humor. It's like they take these social constructs, and make everyone a sociopath.

Of all the characters, I think I hated Paulie Walnuts most of all.

Debra Wilson nails Melfi with just a few lines in this Mad TV spoof

[quote] Is it just me, or is Lorraine Bracco terrible in this show? She sounds doped.

She’s a horrendous actress who was only cast because of her Goodfellas connections. She is the worst cast person on the show next to Tony’s two kids.

R11, that is hilarious. Debra is perfect!

She didn’t seem natural. Very obvious acting, and not even great acting.

Lorraine Bracco doesn't seem intelligent enough to play Dr. Melfi, who was supposed to be intelligent. Also, the accent, I'll admit, doesn't scream "intelligence!" IMO.

Lorraine delivered her lines pretty slowly, which made me think that she struggled with some of the language / words coming out of Dr. Melfi's mouth.

Did anyone else noticed Lin Manuel Miranda playing a bellhop in the second half of Season 6. It was the episode where Paulie and Tony take a road trip.

And Edgar Ramirez played a bit part in the Second half of season 2.

Debra Wilson got Lorraine Bracco's line delivery down perfect. The guy playing Tony Soprano didn't do a spot on imitation of James Gandolfini but he was close enough to sell it and he's a very good comedic performer.

R17, honestly, maybe it's because the video wasn't exactly in HD, but I almost thought that was James Gandolfini for a second. He was good. But Debra really nailed Doctor Melfi's mealy-mouthed vocal fry.

She was annoying, as are many people. She's not as bad as idiots who casually brag about having a ball & chain. OP is exhausting and trapped in a co-dependent existence.

Melfi was my favorite character and I found her fascinating. The thick accent contrasted with obvious literacy and intelligence, and her questionable motives for having Soprano as a client.

IRL, no therapist who cared about survival would dare on a mob boss as a patient, particularly after the way Tony threatened to kill her, had her car stolen and repaired and then forced her to go into hiding.

It was all ridiculously ludicrous, but I believe Bracco sold it.

I just started watching this show for the first time two weeks ago, and I'm enjoying it. In the earlier seasons, Perez Hilton and Lady Gaga show up in very tiny bit parts. In season 4, there is an intervention scene, which might be one of the funniest scenes I've watched in any show.

R20, I got the impression Melfi enjoyed flirting with the danger of counseling a mob boss. She was fascinated by him and all his contradictions.Yes Bracco sold it. I thought she did a great job. I found Carmella vey annoying. The last two seasons, AJ also annoyed the shit out of me.

R22, Melfi was something of a stand-in for the audience. All the danger signs were there, and they just kept mounting, but she found Tony magnetic and sympathetic. Her own therapist didn’t protect her either, because he, too, was caught up in the drama of hearing about Tony.

I just finished the series for the first time. I think Tony was killed at the end when the screen went black. What do you think happened to the other characters? AJ resurrects the Soprano crime family to avenge Tony's death. The lone survivor of the gang, Paulie Walnuts, joins AJ since the mafia is the only life he's ever known. He serves AJ, just as he served AJ's dad and grandfather. Meadow becomes a lawyer; hopefully she avoids having a kid and quitting her job like Tony predicted and pressured her to. Carmela hangs with the other mourning gang widows. Maybe she looks up Furio and lets him know she's available now. Dr. Melfi wonders if Tony was more vulnerable to being whacked after she dumped him as a patient. As Janis's daughter grows, Janis acts more and more like her own mother, Livia. And Junior passes away in the assisted living facility. I had hoped that the show would reveal that Junior had shot Tony intentionally rather than from a state of confusion.

They really didn't know what to do with Melfi after the first season. The female characters were more difficult to write beyond a single story arc---even Carmella seemed a bit rudderless at times in terms of her place in the story.

R24, I think you're right about Tony, Melfi, Meadow and Janice, but that's about it.

AJ was FAR too weak to be in the mob and he and his parents knew it. He probably got fired from his production secretary gig for sheer ineptitude and - without his father's muscle to help get a no-show job - committed low-level crimes which landed him in and out of jail. He may have been successfully committed suicide after his father's murder right in front of him.

We saw after Tony was shot what would happen to Carmela - Tony's crew rebelled against sharing money with her. Since the crew was largely dead by the end of the series, that wouldn't be an option, anyway. Paulie would probably have her whacked before sharing his blood money with her. Carmella either found Tony's offshore accounts or she leaned on her parents for awhile before finding another man to marry and support her.

And if you believe Tony was killed, there's some evidence that Paulie and Patsy may have been in on it. If that was the case, they either took over the NJ operation or merged with New York.

But really, this is all fanfic guesswork!